Furniture cushion and upholstery



May 19, 1970 J. F. WALL ETAL 3,512,191

' FURNITURE CUSHION AND UPHOLSTERY Filed Oct. 25, 1967 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 INVENTOR. JOHN F. WALL IMRE J. SMITH ieaz qe 4. Paum Agent May 19, 1970 J. F. WALL T 3,

FURNITURE CUSHION AND UPHOLSTERY Filed Oct. 2:5. 196'? 2 Sheets-Sheet'Z INVENTOR. JOHN F. WALL IMRE J. SMITH Agent United States Patent 3,512,191 FURNITURE CUSHION AND UPHOLSTERY John Franklin Wall, Oakville, Ontario, vCanada, and Imre Jack Smith, 43 Brucewood Crescent, Toronto 19, Ontario, Canada; said Wall, assignor to said Smith Filed Oct. 23, 1967, Ser. No. 677,342 Int. Cl. A47c 27/08 US. Cl. -345 5 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE This specification discloses an article of covered upholstery such as a pillow, cushion, chair, bed or the like in which the upholstery pad is provided with a retaining slit, generally located in a side wall, and in which the cover is provided with side panels dimensioned to overlap such side walls, and pleats formed in said side panels and oriented to fit within said retaining slit to hold the cover firmly in position on the pad.

This invention relates to the construction of furniture cushions and upholstery and to covers therefor.

The construction of upholstered furniture according to conventional techniques usually comprises three basic elements, namely, a frame, upholstery supported on the frame, and a cover for the upholstery. In the majority of cases, the cover is secured to the frame by means of tacks or staples, or, in the case of metal frames, by other gripping devices. The construction of furniture cushions, pillows, and the like which may be used separately, or which may be used together with the upholstered furniture, to augment the upholstery, usually comprises a core of upholstered cushion material, preferably formed into a predetermined shape, and a fitted cover which is either sewn in place around the core, or is provided with a zipper at one end to permit removal for cleaning purposes. [It is apparent that the employment of fastenings such as tacks, staples and zippers is costly in terms of material, and is very much more costly in terms of the man-hours involved. In addition, the use of tacks or staples or like gripping devices tends to destroy the material and also the frame, with the result that the upholstery can be recovered only a limited number of times. In addition, each time the upholstery is recovered, great care and skill must be employed to ensure that the new cover fits precisely the same as the original. Obviously, some economies could be obtained with the use of, for example, adhesives, but it would then become impossible to remove the old cover, and the result would not be acceptable.

According to the present invention, the use of tacks and staples is dispensed with in the covering of upholstered furniture, and the use of zippers is dispensed with in the covering of pillows and cushions while maintaining the cover itself in a condition which permits easy removal from the furniture for cleaning or recovering, while maintaining a precise fit at all times. It is a further objective of the invention to provide a furniture construction having the foregoing advantages which may be assembled by unskilled labour without the use of tools.

It is a further objective of the present invention to provide a furniture construction having the foregoing advantages in which, where the padding is supported by a frame, the padding is separately attached to the frame, thereby leaving the upholstery free to move with the deflection of the padding and being substantially unattached to the frame, thereby avoiding undue stresses at points of attachment to the frame when the furniture is in use.

It is a further objective of the invention to provide a furniture construction having the foregoing advantages I CC in which tailored, fitted, covers may be provided as replacements for the original covers, which may be fitted by the purchasers of original furniture without any special skill or knowledge and which will ensure a restoration of the original appearance of the furniture.

The foregoing and other advantages will become apparent from the following description of a preferred embodiment of the invention which is given here by way of example only, with reference to the following drawings in which like reference devices refer to like parts thereof throughout the various views and diagrams and in which:

FIG. 1 is a perspective illustration of a piece of furniture according to the present invention, partially cut away to reveal the construction;

FIG. 2 is a section along the line 22 of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a greatly enlarged section along part of the line 22;

FIG. 4 is a perspective illustration of a corner of the cover removed from the core;

FIG. 5 is a schematic illustration of a corner of the material used to form the cover showing the arrangement of the cuts formed therein;

FIG. 6 is a perspective illustration of a further embodiment of the invention comprising a pillow or cushion partially cut away to reveal its construction, and the arrangement of the cover, and,

FIG. 7 is a perspective illustration of a further embodiment of a cushion according to the invention.

According to this preferred embodiment, the invention will be seen to be described in connection with a simple form of diagram couch or bed having a base 10 of thick plywood or like material to which a suitable number of legs 11 are attached by conventional means such as threaded rods 12. The padded portion of the furniture consists of a single integral slab of resilient synthetic foam material such as polyurethane or the like material indicated generally as 13 of a rectangular shape corresponding to the shape of the base 10 and dimensioned to overlap the same around its edges. Foam slab 13 is provided with dependant wall-portions 14 extending around the edges of base 10 to both conceal the frame and provide a padded edge therearound. Foam slab 13 is attached to base 10 by means of an adhesive layer indicated as 15. It will be noted that the adhesive layer 15 is of reduced area in relation to the area of base 10 whereby to provide a central bonded area corresponding to adhesive area 15, and an unbonded marginal zone around the edge of base 10 for purposes to be described below. It will further be noted that foam slab 13 is provided, in its side walls 16 with a continuous peripheral slit 17 formed therein to a depth, in this embodiment, of about one to three inches, and in a plane normal to that of side walls 16 and parallel to the upper surface of slab 13 and of the base 10. It will be understood that the formation of slit 7 17 is merely that of an incision, and does not involve the removal of any materials, the slit being merely formed by a suitable rotary knife. In this way, the natural resilience of foam slab 13 will maintain slit 17 tightly closed, although being capable of being opened up by hand to introduce upholstery material therein as described below.

The material cover of this preferred embodiment is indicated as reference 18, and comprises a single integral piece of material having an upper panel 19, side panels 20, and end panels 21. Top panel 19 is dimensioned to correspond exactly to the size of the upper surface of the foam slab 13. Side panels 20 and end panels 21 are dimensioned to exceed the width of side walls 16 of foam slab 13 by an amount equal to not less than about twice the depth of the slit 17 and preferably in the region of three times the depth of slit 17. The cor ners between side panels 20 and end panels 21 of cover 18 are formed with upper and lower seams 22 and 23 which are separated by inwardly directed wedge pleats 24 and 24' dimensioned and oriented to fit within slit 17 and foam slab 13. In order to form corners in this way, the sheet of cloth forming cover 18 is cut substantially as shown in FIG. 5 from which it will be noted that the wedge pleats 24-24 are defined essentially by right angle notches cut out from the corners. By the provision of pleats 24-24, and an excess of material in side panels and end panels 21, it becomes possible to infold the excess material of side panels 20 and end panels 2l into the slit 17, the foam material of slab 13 being sufficiently flexible and resilient to be flexed into the four corners of cover 18 which they will then fill and cause top panel 19 of cover 18 to be stretched tightly thereover. This tension is found to be sufiicient to maintain the cover 18 in position on the foam slab 13 without any additional fastenings, and, since the four gussets 24 at the four corners of cover 18 are dimensioned to fit into the full depth of the slit 17, there is little or no tendency for the loose material infolded into slit 17 to escape.

In this way the four upper pleats 24 and lower pleats 24' provide a continuous non-extensible waist around side panels 20 and end panels 21 oriented to fit within slit 17, and pleats 25 provide a further such non-extensible Waist fitting between core 13 and support 10.

in this preferred embodiment, in order to provide a more pleasing finish, the same principle is employed to provide a fitted lower edge to cover 18. For this purpose, each of the corners of cover 18 are provided with a further seam 25 (see FIG. 4) which is designed to fit around the underside of dependent walls 14 of foam slab 13 and be folded in between the unbonded margin of foam slab 13 and base 10.

According to the preferred embodiment of the invention illustrated in FIG. 6, the same principle may be applied to the construction of a pillow or cushion.

In this embodiment, a pillow or cushion as shown is provided with a preformed core of predetermined shape, preferably incorporating at least one or more edges of either right angle or acute angle section such as along at least one side of a surface 33 which is planar along at least one axis the edges 31 and 32. The core 30 is preferably of any suitable padding material Which is both crushable, and expandable back to its original predetermined shape, such as but not exclusively, foam plastic i.e. polyurethane foam, or the like and foam rubber. A slit 34 is formed along the longitudinal axis of surface 33 extending into core 30 from one to three or more inches, although this is not critical, preferably normal to the plane of surface 33. Slit 34 is shorter than the full length of the longitudinal axis of surface 33 for reasons to be described below.

The cover 35 comprises, in this embodiment end wall panels 36, a side wall panel 37, side panels 38, and a further side wall panel 39, adapted to cover surface 33 of core 30. Panels 36, 37 and 38 are all formed and tailored in any suitable conventional manner. Panel 39 is formed of'an excess of material preferably being equal to the width of panel 39 and twice the depth of slit 34. A seam 40 is formed at each end of panel 39 to fit the same closely to surface 33, (the excess material adjacent to seams 40 preferably being removed), and a further seam 41 is formed at right angles to seams 4G to the edges of the excess material so as to fit snugly within slit 34. The unseamed portions, indicated as 42, between seams 41 define the opening through which the core 30 may be inserted and removed. The portions 42 are concealed by tucking them into slit 34, seams 41 fitting tightly Within either end thereof to hold the cover 35 firmly in position.

It will be understood that notwithstanding the specific features described in connection with the foregoing preferred embodiment, many variations can be incorporated without partingfrom the spirit of the invention. Thus, for example, the slit 17 in foam slab 13 may be relocated upwardly or downwardly, and may even comprise a slitshaped opening between the foam slab 13 and an adjacent underlying fiat frictional surface. For example, it would be permissible to apply frictional material such as sand paper to the unbonded marginal zone around the edge of case 10, the remaining features of the cover 18 in relation to the wedge-cut pleats at the corners being sub stantially as described.

Furthermore, it will be understood that in connection with the pillow or cushion embodiment as shown in FIG. 6, may of course be varied to alter the appearance of the article by extending the slit 34 around all four sides so as to provide a continuous slit, and forming the cover 35 with corners having wedge pleats similar to the embodiment of FIG. 1, alternatively the cover 35 may be made in two parts, one of which would cover one-half of the core 30 and the other of which would cover the other half of the core 30, the two portions of the cover in this case being formed with wedge-shaped corners similar to corners 25 of the embodiment of FIG. 1, each of which would be adapted to fit within the single slit 34.

Obviously, while the pillow or cushion embodiment has been described particularly in relation to FIG. 6 showing a substantially rectangular type of pillow, the same principle can be applied to a pillow of varying shapes including, for example, a cylindrical pillow such as is shown in FIG. 7. In this case, a substantially cylindrical unitary foarn plastic core member indicated as 43 is provided with an annular slit 44 extending around the cylindrical portion thereof midway between the two planar ends. The cover indicated generally as 45 may be formed in variousways. For example, the cover 45 could be formed of upper and lower portions which are separate from one another and are provided with in-turned lower lips 46 adapted to fit snugly within slit 44. Alternatively, the cover 45 can be made essentially in one piece, with a pleat corresponding to the inturned portion 46 oriented and dimensioned to fit within slit 44, the core 43 being introduced and removed through an opening on the underside of the cover 45, which would normally be concealed by the floor, for example, if the member is to be used as, for example, a footstool. In either case, in order to form the i-nturned portion or pleat 46 around a cylindrical or other curved surface, it will obviously be necessary to provide a plurality of wedge-shaped right angle pleats indicated generally as 47 therearound, the precise number of such pleats being dependant upon the size of the core 43.

It will be understood from the foregoing that the nature of the core member should preferably be such that it is crushable, so that it may be deformed in whatever way is necessary to introduce it past a restriction, usually provided by an inturned pleat, within a cover, but is such that it will immediately recover its original predetermined shape upon being released within the cover. Generally, speaking, therefore, a semi-rigid member such as a coil spring will -be unsuitable, since it is not crushable in any direction. A coil spring padded structure is generally speaking crushable only along the axis of the coil springs, and not transversely, thereby rendering it unsuitable for practise of the present invention. However, it will be permissable in some cases to employ a combination of a central region of the core consisting essentially of a conventional padded coil spring member, around which is arranged a layer of crushable foam plastic material, such as polyurethane foam. Obviously, such polyurethane foam material should be suificient thickness in the region where the cover is most restricted, that it may be completely crushed to permit the member to be introduced into the cover, and will thus, generally speaking, be coextensive with the depth of the slit formed within the core. In this way, substantial economies in the use of the relatively expensive crushable foam plastic material may be accomplished without departing from the spirit of the invention.

In addition to the foregoing, it is also possible to vary the structure by way of incorporating more than one slit and more than one pleat for fitting within such slit, thereby altering the appearance of the structure and also giving a greater degree of grip as between the cover and the core.

In some cases there may be an excessive amount of frictional effect between the top of the pad and the material of the cover, causing wrinkling of the cover. In this case it may be helpful to attach a layer of cheesecloth or ticking to the top surface of the pad, as by adhesive or the like. It is preferred, however, that such ticking should not extend around the side walls of the pad, where the frictional effect is desirable and should not be minimized.

The foregoing description of a preferred embodiment of the invention is given here by way of example only. The invention is not deemed to be restricted to any of the specific features shown.

What we claim is: I

1. An article of covered upholstery for use as a pillow, cushion, chair, bed or the like, said article comprising: a crushable pad of generally rectangular shape, defining a top surface, side walls and end walls, and an undersurface; slit means formed continuously to a predetermined depth around said side walls and end walls in a plane substantially parallel to the plane of said top surface but spaced therefrom; a cover for said pad tailored to fit snugly therearound and having a top surface panel, side panels, and end panels, said top surface panel being dimensioned to correspond to said top surface of said pad and said side and end panels being dimensioned to overlap said side and end walls by an amount equal to about twice the depth of said slit means in said side and end walls; upper and lower seams joining said side and end panels at right angles to form substantially rectangular corners therebetween snugly fitting around said pad, and wedge-shaped pleats defining a waist portion in said side and end panels in a common plane formed at each end of each of said side and end panels of said cover between said upper and lower seams oriented to correspond with the said plane of said slit means and to fit Within said slit means when said cover is applied to the said pad.

2. An article of covered upholstery as claimed in claim 1 including support means for said pad, and means attaching a portion of said undersurface of said pad to said support, said pad being unattached to said support around a marginal zone thereof.

3. An article of covered upholstery as claimed in claim 1 wherein said pad is dimensioned to define a width dimension W, comprising the top surface thereof and a height dimension H comprising the side wall thereof, and wherein said slit is cut to a predetermined depth D, and wherein said cover is formed with a top panel having a Width W, and side panels having a Width equal to H plus 2D at least.

4. An article of covered upholstery as claimed in claim 1 wherein said crushable pad is formed of synthetic foamed plastic material.

5. An article of covered upholstery as claimed in claim 1 including spring means within the interior of said crushable pad, and foam plastic material around the exterior thereof.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,119,706 6/1938 Drexler et a1. 5320 XR 2,259,534 10/1941 Reynolds .1 5320 XR 3,049,729 8/1962 Broyles 5320 XR BOBBY R. GAY, Primary Examiner A. M. CALVERT, Assistant Examiner US. Cl. X.R. 5320; 2972l8 

